PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Sinix,

What R4 patch are you on? I tried to use the latest and greatest with no luck, it causes my CPU meter to spike randomly for a split second even with only reaktor, I dont even have a patch loaded and it will do this, load a patch say Junatik and every time the spike occurse (every 3 seconds or so) you get a poping sound in the audio, sucks to say the least lol.

I had to drop back to I think it was 4.0.3?

Cheers!

Basic,

I'll need to look, but I know I'm not running the very latest patch... It's sad, but I really don't push reaktor too much or build much in it these days, so I haven't kept up with it. I still think it's great, but I'm just overwhelmed with options these days!

My sonic life (when I have time) pretty much revolves around Creamware and the ATC-X. I'm quite looking forward to the Poco Virus though - I kinda miss my old Virus-B for quick ability to call up amazing presets and tweak them to fit.

so you guys are telling, that you can only use max. 80% cpu power ?
this sounds strange to me. Is this usual with todays intel/windows systems ? has it to do with HT ? cubase ?
I mean, before splitting my environment into several pc's some years ago, I was for shure able to use my p3-600 with logic up to 99% with no clicks, crackles, etc. (This is still my scope hosting and main pc, btw).
On my "newer" p4-2GHz with logic/rme only I still can use up to 99% without having probs. And on the macs, I have for testing, I can always use up to 100% without any glitches/clicks on OSX.
So I assume with 3.2GHz minus 20% you get 2,56 GHz max. usable, which is not that much more than my two years old 2GHz.
Somehow I have the feeling, that the newer generations of intel/windows combos don't work very well for audio !?
Or is it the use of to much slots (which shouldn't be a problem in an ideal world, too ?
Just curious here .. I have already decided, what's next ..

they are not discussing peak use. obviously, one can use up to 100% peak power. cpu load is dynamic, especially with audio, so these numbers can be thought of as "rms" power....

of course they are not discussing peak use only, but my question was in this direction
And obviously they can't use 100 %, if they are experiencing clicks at 80%, can they ?

errh, and some words to cpu load: it is not dynamic by itself, but heavily dependant on programming.
e.g. one difference between cubase and logic is, that cubase always runs in "low latency mode" for all instruments, while logic only puts the selected instrument in "low latency mode". The latter leads to less cpu consumption, while with the first you don't run into having the fear of getting playback stopped, while changing an audio instrument track.

Perhaps with the "dynamic" part, you are talking about, you mean windows itself

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: wolf on 2004-05-06 02:23 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: wolf on 2004-05-06 02:26 ]</font>

Personally, I think it's a bit much to expect 90%-100% CPU usage while essentially maxing out the PCI bus with three DSP cards. I dont think that's realistic at all. I would fully expect the system to choke at that point.

If I didn't have all three cards going, I'm sure the results would be quite different! If I loaded up to or three CW devices and used only native devices I'm positive I could push 90% or more.

Furthermore, I don't like to push the system that hard. Alwasys running it with that amount of overhead gives less margin of error when something does (and it will) go wrong. It's harder to control and recover the system from software error.

The tests were more or less a personal gauge of how the system would work for me. I'm glad a couple people have gotten something out of them. Basic Pitch seems to have built a stable system where he did not have one before. Running 70% or more CPU on all three cards *and* 70% CPU on a p4 3.2ghz is a _serious_ amount of processing power. I couldn't have dreamed up something like this 3 or 4 years ago - it's beyond any of my expectations. Honestly, I doubt I personally have reason to use that much. I can easily get what I need to do and like with probably half that and still have what I feel is amazing results. I appreciate everyone's methods are different though. I don't run the system all out with everything "live", rather process and render things to audio as I go.

Anyway, I'm far off point. Again, I just don't think you can expect to max out the PCI bus AND get full CPU. Not with the current bus, but maybe with PCI-Express or whatever comes next. Aside from CPU's and ram were still on technology that's close to 8 years old.

On 2004-05-06 07:55, sinix wrote:
Personally, I think it's a bit much to expect 90%-100% CPU usage while essentially maxing out the PCI bus with three DSP cards. I dont think that's realistic at all. I would fully expect the system to choke at that point.

that's why I moved my sequencer to a 2nd pc. screen response was just to slow, when over 80%

If I didn't have all three cards going, I'm sure the results would be quite different!

ok, that's, what I wanted to hear

Furthermore, I don't like to push the system that hard. Alwasys running it with that amount of overhead gives less margin of error when something does (and it will) go wrong. It's harder to control and recover the system from software error.

mmh, but that sounds strange again. I can run my sequencer with 99% cpu usage without any errors. It just stops, when there's a cpu usage peak over 100%. Ok, I don't have additional cards in it, only the rme hdsp connected via Adat to my scope rig.

The tests were more or less a personal gauge of how the system would work for me.

yep, and I've read it like this. Doing general, universal and/or comparing tests is a complete different story

I couldn't have dreamed up something like this 3 or 4 years ago - it's beyond any of my expectations.

hehe, that's exactly the feeling, I had, when I splitted my setup into two pc's two years ago. And believe me, it is still like this, although I didn't change anything inbetween.
I really hope, your happiness with your current setup stays at least as long as mine !

best
Wolfgang

Wolf, i have to admit, i can use my computer to 100% without an error. above 100%, things stop working, error.

my cpu meter is also never steady.it jumps depending on what an application is doing. generally, i like to keep the meter at an average level where jumps and spikes in resource usage don't cause playback errors.

i agree that the way logic works seems a little more reasonable regarding cpu usage and indeed,i still use logic. i've already polluted this forum enough about sx. sx sure sounds good(imo).

regardless,the current state of the daw personal computer is pretty amazing especially comparing to 4 or 5 years ago. congrats on having a nice system and i hope it continues to please you.

One thing to add,

In regards to the CPU meter, depending on the app, such as Nuendo 2.x, I feel this app is a tad bit overly hungry when it comes to CPU resources, this could contribute the after 80-90% error issues. Just a thought maybe.

Cheers!

definitely.